KARACHI, Jan 15: Delay in results of 16,000 candidates, who had appeared in the test held for appointments against 752 vacant lecturers posts at intermediate and degree colleges in the province, is causing concern among the interested quarters.

The College of Business Management authorities, which conducted the written tests, simultaneously at Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur on Dec 14, 2003, claim they had submitted the results within 10 days of holding of the test.

"We evaluated the test papers within 10 days of holding of written tests and submitted the results to the Sindh Education Department on Dec 24, 2003," CBM Academics Director Talib Karim told PPI here on Thursday.

According to him, it was now the responsibility of the provincial education department to publish the list of successful candidates and invite them for interviews for final selection. However, Mr Karim refused to comment on chances of any illicit bargain between the appointing officials and the candidates. It was learnt that results submitted by the CBM were being presented to several high officials of the Education department, including the Minister, Irfanullah Marwat, Secretary and EDO (Higher Education).

The EDO, when approached, expressing ignorance about causes of delay in written test results, said lists of successful candidates were with education department officials and it was their duty to announce the same. He was of the view that the delay in announcement of results would ultimately delay the appointment of lecturers at provincial colleges, many of which were already facing paucity of staff.

Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association President Prof Riaz Ahsan, bitterly criticizing the delay, said it was adding to the doubts regarding alleged irregularities in hiring process of teachers. He said the association's demand of making these appointments through the Public Service Commission to ensure transparency in the recruitment process was ignored by the authorities.

He alleged that the appointments had been left to the discretion of education department officials, claiming: " Candidates are raising hue and cry over demands of money for their appointment."

SPLA president maintained that the association had expressed reservations over contractual appointments of teachers, as it would encourage political intervention in hiring process of lecturers. "Results of tests should have been announced within a week. Now when candidates and media have started pointing out irregularities in recruitment process, we demand cancellation of the whole process and selection of lecturers through Public Service Commission," he said.-PPI